Portrait
by radiany
Summary: Anzu ends up giving in. The story's about Yuugi though. [implied YamiYuugi, YamiYuugiAnzu] Part Five of the World Domination vignettes.


**labels **shonen-ai hints; het hints; death and more death; basic cheesiness; slight insanity; OOC; drabble; oneshot; pg

**.b.**

inspired by cinnamon's "windfallen." and a note: "windfallen" is corny, but very sweet, and very sad. all the important ones die. yuugi doodling is taken from cassandra claire's "a season in hell." part five of the _World Domination_ series. jump for joy (don't read this. don't.)

**Portrait **

The grass crumbles under his feet as he walks – yellowing from the lack of rain. The wind whispers through the air, breathing empty promises of thunderstorms over and over again.

It hasn't rained for weeks.

Thus, the earth has dried and the trees have withered around him, dying. When Yuugi thinks of them, he's reminded of an old man. A humble, determined, dying old man.

He thinks he might know him, but he can't remember.

Still, the old man appears in his dreams over and over again, and Yuugi is somewhat bothered because if he really did know him, shouldn't he know?

At that, Yuugi smiles at his foolishness. If he knows, one day he'll remember.

With that in mind, he shifts his position on the ground and returns to doodling stick figures in the dirt.

xxx

A patch of snow sits beside the corner of the Kame Game Shop.

It's grey and splattered with red stains, as if someone has been killed near the spot.

Anzu doesn't want to think about it.

When she pulls back the door, the building seems to heave a great load of cold air. She feels it stinging against her cheeks as it floods past, and wonders if Yuugi forgot to turn on the heater again. As she enters, all she hears is an echo of nothingness, as if she had passed the breaching sign in the moor and found the house and home of the dying.

Sugoroku was buried only yesterday.

"Heart attack," they said. No one was there when he'd collapsed, so when Anzu asked, the supervisors gave the most logical conclusion (or perhaps it was a simple lie to fool the "little children" who had come to ask of the dead) before showing them the door.

Yuugi had watched as the body was thrown into the grave, unblinking as they shoveled dirt back into the pit. Before they left, Anzu thinks that he may have knelt down and touched the ground with something more than a blank face, but in the end she deemed it nothing more than a fleeting fancy.

The stairs are stiff under her feet, disabled of creaking from the chilled air.

It's cold.

xxx

Leaves.

Leaves falling.

Someone laughing; someone crying.

Something gold; something red.

A soothing touch; a burst of pain.

Happy? Is this happiness? Yuugi can't quite remember the feeling. Maybe it was sadness disguised by a mask of "happy."

"Yuugi?"

Yuugi feels a tinge of annoyance pass through him for the interruption of a memory, but he looks up anyway. It's a girl. It's a girl with limping brown hair and softened blue eyes.

He slowly blinks, and her eyes are bright as if she is hoping he might recognize her. "Anzu."

Before she can answer – before she can cry – he turns away, retracing the lines he's already drawn. Anzu flinches, confused, and steps toward him; her hand reaches out tentatively before landing gently on Yuugi's shoulder. "Yuugi, you're all right?"

She needs to know. She hopes: please, please, please be okay.

Yuugi pauses at her touch, but he glances up, a hazy glaze misting over his eyes.

"Yuugi?"

"…Hello? Who are you?"

xxx

A man with three spikes jutting out of his head sits on a bed, arranging a pile of cards on the sheets.

At least, Anzu thinks it's a bed. The man, she knows, is Yami no Yuugi. If it had been anyone else looking at the pictures, they would've never been able to tell the difference.

But Anzu knows. She's always known.

Shaking her head lightly, she lays the paper on top of the stack next to her, picking up another stray folder while she's at it. Instinctively, she opens it and runs through the drawings. They're all rather simple. People are stick figures while objects are rectangles, circles, triangles - basic geometry. Yuugi scribbles them on a regular basis, and if Anzu didn't stop by so often to make him eat or sleep or clean up, she figures that he'd draw them all day.

Childish things, these drawings. But Anzu knows better.

This is Yuugi's story. This is how he remembers. Yet with every drawing, the memories are passed upon paper and forgotten – left for everyone to see. Everyone except himself.

Looking at himself in a mirror.

Watching his other half duel.

Being hugged by Yami no Yuugi.

There are no more pictures.

Anzu runs her fingers over their faces, briefly, before she closes the folder and puts it away.

xxx

It's another dry day, and Yuugi defends himself from the heat of the sun with a fan, resting his head upon the peeling oak.

The girl's still here, he can feel her. She's standing on the other side of the tree, whispering, wanting. "Yuugi, come back. We need you. He's not coming back. Yuugi, please."

Almost lazily, he tilts his head up, staring straight into the sun. He doesn't blink. "He said 'I'll come for you. When this is all over, I'll find you.' He will. He promised."

He thinks she's closing her eyes, because she's breathing a bit harshly, as if she is willing herself not to weep. "Yuugi, he's gone."

But Yuugi knows he isn't.

He isn't, because he's promised.

Because Yami no Yuugi promised that he would always find him.

Anzu walks down the staircase and toward the doors, but the distance suddenly seems so long, as if the room has been stretched. When she reaches the exit, she wants to run free, but she can't help stopping.

Her breaths are ghosts – white ghosts, and it's so very, very cold.

Heart pounding in her ears, she closes her eyes very, very tightly and leans against the closest wall. Finally, she releases a breath she didn't know she was holding and mouths empty lines into the air.

The words seem frosty upon her lips.

Suffering; it's all people seem to do nowadays.

She turns on the air conditioner before she leaves.

Somewhere Else, Yuugi blinks, almost drowsily, up at his counterpart.

"Yami?"

Softly, softly, "Hello Yuugi, I've come to take you home."

**fin**

**.a.**

finished july 15th, 2004.

the "I'll come for you," "somewhere else," yuugi "knowing then not knowing," and "hello" bits have been taken from cinnamon's "windfallen" and should be credited to her. let's see. two, three more to go? you're getting agitated now, aren't you.

******8:46 pm******


End file.
